Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

One of the attractions for long-term Star Wars fans of the new animated series, Star Wars Rebels, coming to Disney XD later this year will be a chance to see some of Ralph McQuarrie’s original production paintings being used as the basis for planets and creatures.

According to an interview with executive producer Simon Kinberg in Entertainment Weekly, “The place we went back to as to a visual template was Ralph McQuarrie, who was one of the original concept artists for the original Star Wars films. His art is softer, a little more figurative, more of a feel of being drawn, less computer generated. The first few movies had a bit of a hand-made quality. We wanted the show to have that.”

Kinberg also revealed that there is “tons of art that’s McQuarrie’s musing on the Star Wars universe that was never used in the films. There’s places where we’ve quite literally taken world-creation or vehicles or creatures from his original art that was never used in the films and made that part of show.”

The series will be set between Episodes III and IV, and will feature the founding of the Rebel Alliance. “If I told the story of the American Revolution, I wouldn’t want to start with the most famous battle,” Kinberg explains. “I’d want to start when it was just four guys in a room, the earliest spark of that seems dramatic and cool. That’s a big part of the fun of it, the little back-room dealings, the first time you see it’s possible to stand up to the Empire.”

Kinberg wouldn’t be drawn on which familiar characters would appear, or whether they would be voiced by the original actors. Star Wars Rebels begins this autumn, and will feature the character of the Inquisitor (above)